Get Rid Of Fruit Flies The Easy Way The Homemade Fruit Fly Catcher
We are coming into the season where those pesky little flying insects called fruit flies are going to be on the rampage again.
These flies are very annoying for homeowners, as it seems you can’t see them and then all of a sudden there are hundreds of them all over the place.
Most people will go straight to the kitchen cupboard and pull out a surface spray of some kind, and start to spray the fruit the flies are around in an attempt to get rid of these little pests.
The problem with blindly spraying a surface spray all over the fruit and around the rest of the house is that it fills the air up with the horrible smell of the surface spray, it also covers the fruit you may want to eat later in it also.
I personally refuse to have any kind of surface spray in the house, as they are not the best things to get in the habit of spraying around where your family and pets are, and especially not a good idea to be spraying them all over food your about to eat.
There are easier ways to get rid of fruit flies and I’ll explain, but first a little bit about the little critters that cause us so much frustration.
About Fruit Flies
There are many species of fruit fly, but the one we seem to get in our homes is Drosophila melanogaster from the family Drosophilidae.
This species of the fruit fly are fast breeding tiny little insects, they are not considered a major threat to our food crops here in Australia because they only feed on already rotting fruit, rather than causing the fruit to rot.
Their lifespan is around 30 days this will depend on the temperature, the females lay around 400 eggs, and they lay these into rotting fruit or other suitable rotting materials, such as tomatoes, mushrooms etc.
The eggs hatch after about 15 hours, they are about 0.5mm long, and the larvae will grow over the next 4 days feeding on microorganisms that have decomposed on the fruit.
Their reproductive behaviours differ somewhat between the female and the male, when it comes to sex the females seem to prefer a shorter duration whereas the males prefer it to last a little longer, enjoying their brief time together maybe, and let’s face it who can blame them they do only live for 30 days.
So we now know that the whole reproduction and life cycle of these household pests is very fast, and this is why we get such an abundance of them during the hotter months, this would make sense because our fruit goes off faster during the hotter weather, and as we now know it’s the rotting fruit they are attracted to.
Fruit Fly Fun
Get Rid Of Fruit Flies With The Homemade Fruit Fly Catcher
These are easy to follow instructions to make a simple homemade catcher that will help to get rid of fruit flies. The items you will need are a coffee mug or glass some cling wrap and a small bottle of apple cider vinegar.
You simply put some of the apple cider vinegar into the mug, only about quarter fill it or you are just wasting it, although it’s not that expensive to buy you may as well have it last.
You can refill it every few days or so, depending on how many fruit flies you have around will depend on how often it needs to be re-done.
So once you have put the required amount into the mug you simply place some cling wrap over the mug and then pierce some holes in the top of it with a fork, making the holes big enough for the flies to get into.
Now place your new fruit fly catcher next to the problem area such as a fruit bowl, and these little pests will be attracted to the sweet smell of the apple cider vinegar and will drown.
When you’re done with this and have caught a lot of the fruit flies with the catcher you can simply pour the vinegar down the sink along with the pests.
Conclusion
This is the easiest and fastest way to control fruit fly infestations that won’t break the bank and is good for your family and the environment. To get rid f fruit flies can be an ongoing process during the warmer months. The hotter the summer we have more issues with fruit flies that occur.
Keeping bins in the house or office is a very important part to get rid of fruit flies. The less inviting the environment is for fruit flies the less of a problem there will be.
If problems with fruit flies persist it may need a professional pest management company to carry out a treatment
